The ICRA Robot Challenge

Citation

(2008), "The ICRA Robot Challenge", Industrial Robot, Vol. 35 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2008.04935aab.002

The ICRA Robot Challenge

The ICRA Robot Challenge

There is a new Robot Challenge currently being organized in conjunction with the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). The new Robot Challenge will have space robotics as the main theme and the first competition will take place next year during the ICRA 2008 conference to be held in Pasadena, California.

For the time being, two events are scheduled: the sandbox, and the planetary robotic contingency. Details have not been finalized for the two events as the organizers are asking researchers who want to compete to help them define all the parameters. However, broad descriptions of the two events have been posted on the Robot Challenge web site.

The sandbox will simulate a planetary rover mission in a small, 6×6m area covered in sand and rocks. Contestants will be asked to develop robots to perform autonomous navigation, mapping, data collection and object retrieval.

The robotic planetary contingency challenge is more ambitious. Organizers hope to simulate an unexpected problem during a space mission and ask participants to develop autonomous robotic systems that can quickly devise a solution using only existing resources. In this case, the sandbox will function as the planetary environment while a second area called the habitat will be used by the robotics team to develop their solution to the given problem. Some example missions include antenna recovery, base station repair and buggy diagnosis and repair.

Source: Artificial intelligence blog